Amsterdam, Netherlands: Canal Rings, the Golden Age, and a City That Moves on Bikes

The Rijksmuseum, the Dutch national museum on Museumplein, holds the most complete collection of Dutch Golden Age painting in the world: Rembrandt's Night Watch (approximately 3.5 by 4.5 meters, painted in 1642, displayed in its own gallery), Vermeer's The Milkmaid and Woman Reading a Letter, and works by Frans Hals, Jan Steen, and dozens of lesser-known Golden Age painters whose technical accomplishment is extraordinary even by the standards of the period. The building was renovated between 2003 and 2013; the layout is clear and the labeling thorough. The museum is large — budget 2 to 3 hours for a meaningful visit. Tickets sell out online; booking in advance is strongly recommended.

The Anne Frank House on the Prinsengracht is the building where Otto Frank hid his family in a concealed apartment for two years during the German occupation, until they were betrayed and deported in August 1944. Anne Frank kept a diary during the period in hiding; she died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen in February 1945. The diary was published by her father after the war and is the most widely read account of Jewish life under the Nazi occupation. The house is preserved largely as it was; the hidden doorway behind the moveable bookcase is intact and the rooms where the family lived for 761 days are accessible. Tickets must be booked months in advance; the queue for on-the-day entry is very long and often sold out entirely.

The canal network of Amsterdam's grachtengordel (canal belt) was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010. The three main canals — Herengracht, Keizersgracht, and Prinsengracht — run in concentric semicircles around the medieval core, lined with 17th-century merchant houses whose architectural variation (different gable styles, different brick colors, different proportions) reflects the individual wealth and taste of the merchants who built them. Walking the entire canal belt takes about 3 hours at a relaxed pace; the Jordaan neighborhood west of the Prinsengracht is the most consistently pleasing section for walking, with its own smaller canals, independent shops, and the Noordermarkt Saturday market.

The Stedelijk Museum (modern and contemporary art) and the Van Gogh Museum share the Museumplein with the Rijksmuseum. The Van Gogh Museum holds the largest collection of Van Gogh's work in the world — 200 paintings and 500 drawings including The Potato Eaters, the Sunflowers series, and the self-portraits from the Arles and Saint-Rémy periods — along with works by his contemporaries including Gauguin and Toulouse-Lautrec. Book tickets online; the queue without advance tickets is significant.

Amsterdam's food market culture extends beyond the tourist center: the Albert Cuyp Market in the De Pijp neighborhood (about 20 minutes by tram from the center) is the largest outdoor market in the Netherlands, operating daily except Sunday, with stalls selling herring (the classic Dutch preparation is raw, brined, eaten whole with raw onion), stroopwafels (thin waffle cookies with caramel syrup, best warm from the griddle), and Indonesian food reflecting the Netherlands' colonial history. The Indonesian rijsttafel — a spread of small dishes descended from the Javanese and Sumatran foods brought back by Dutch traders — is the one genuinely original Dutch culinary contribution and is available at Indonesian restaurants throughout the city.